How We Started

About Family PASS

From its beginning in 2006, Family PASS has been a Fairfax County Virginia community-based organization, involving volunteers and donors who share a belief that healthy communities are built on healthy families. Their dedication supports the efforts of Family PASS case managers who provide weekly, and sometimes daily, counseling to help families succeed. Healthy families require a roof over their heads. The Family PASS focus, coupled with the commitment of its clients, has achieved a 95% success rate in keeping families housed and self-sufficient. The families that Family PASS assists are highly motivated to regain their self-sufficiency. Most move out of our program within a year. We consider it an honor to be able to assist them.

30% of Fairfax County’s 1225 homeless are children under 18

Josh was homeless for almost two years when the homeless liaison at his elementary school contacted Family PASS for help in 2010. She had noticed that he and his siblings weren’t focusing on school and, upon investigation, discovered the family had been living from hotel to hotel for over a year. Josh’s mom, with Family PASS’s rental assistance, found a stable home.

Fast forward: Today, Josh is 15. His parents have rental help with the Housing Choice Voucher program but are able to pay a large portion of the rent on their own. All the children are now excelling in school. Josh’s oldest sister won most-improved student of the year and was inducted into her high school’s Honors Thespian Society and is currently studying nursing at Northern Virginia Community College. Josh’s parents now support their family. Mom works part-time and is close to earning her GED. Dad, who was unemployed and without a valid driver’s license when the family entered Family PASS, obtained a commercial driver’s license and now works full-time as a driver for a reputable moving company.

The Beginning: Helping the Homeless One Family at a Time

One family’s experience inspired the founding of Family PASS. The family—a young woman we’ll call Sylvia and her two children—was staying in one of Fairfax County’s temporary housing facilities when Suezette Steinhardt, an employee there, met them.

Without additional education and job skills training, Sylvia faced the risk of becoming homeless and—inevitably—unemployed once again. Suezette and her husband Allan rented a townhouse for Sylvia. Based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines, Sylvia paid 31 percent of her income toward housing and utilities, and the Steinhardts subsidized the rest.

Family PASS is Born

A few months after housing Sylvia, Suezette began working full time on developing the Family PASS program based on best practices and tailored to the problems facing families in Fairfax County. At first neighborhood volunteers donated enough to provide a $600-$800 monthly rent subsidy to three families.

Since its founding Family PASS has served over 120 families and more than 250 children.

Where is Sylvia Now?

In one year, Sylvia and her children, our first program participants, received permanent affordable housing through the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, often referred to as FCRHA. This would not have been possible if she had become homeless and unemployed because FCRHA guidelines require full-time employment for its housing programs.

Being in the Family PASS program helped Sylvia remain at her job, and after three years there, she received promotions and pay raises. The young woman knew her future depended on further education and training, so she also attended Northern Virginia Community College at night to complete her Associates in Arts degree. That’s an accomplishment that would have been impossible without stable housing, which allowed Sylvia to maintain the forward momentum initiated in the transitional housing program.

A Community Partnership
Family PASS: Helping Fairfax County Families Become Self-Sufficient

Since we began, Family PASS has also become an integral part of the network to end homelessness in Fairfax County:

Bridging Affordability Initiative—Family PASS provides case management for working families receiving temporary rental assistance from this new Fairfax County Department of Housing program.

Fairfax-Falls Church Housing Locator Network—Family PASS provides staff and resources to the Locator Network, a collaborative of nonprofits, local service providers, and government agencies that helps people find a stable place to live.

Fairfax County’s 10-year Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness—Family Pass provides data through the Homelessness Management Information System that helps the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness inform local, state and federal officials about the state of homelessness in Fairfax County and the strides made by the county in ending homelessness.

Fairfax County Consolidated Community Funding Pool—Family PASS receives funding to provide rental assistance for two families each year and for a part-time administrative assistant.

Family PASS collaborates with

Fairfax County’s Coordinated Services Planning

Northern Virginia Family Services

Shelter House

Cornerstones

Good Shepherd Housing

Mom Stands Between Families and Homelessness

VIENNA, Virginia (CNN) — “Despite working three jobs, Carolina Wines and her husband, George Wines, couldn’t afford housing. For six months they had to live out of their van, hanging sheets on the windows for privacy and stopping at gas stations to wash up…Using her Virginia home as headquarters, Steinhardt, a suburban mom, created Family
Preservation and Strengthening Services, or Family PASS, to help provide affordable housing and support services to low-income families. She aims to keep families in her community out of shelters and on a path to self-sufficiency. “When we have an economy like this, the people at the very bottom are really going to be hit,” said Steinhardt. “As a mother, as a neighbor to these families, I have to be a part of the solution of what’s going on in our community.” For Steinhardt, 52, the key is bridging the gap between the time families exit transitional housing programs and they obtain affordable, permanent housing. ”

Our Latest Success Story

Marina said that when she was in the shelter she thought that was the end of her life.

It was just the beginning.

Marina is a domestic abuse survivor who came to Family PASS from a shelter 18 months ago.

Even with three small children, including an infant, Marina is determined to not only survive but thrive and has set some amazing goals for herself. She works hard as a health aide during the day and as a student at nights and weekends pursuing her bachelor’s degree in IT with support from Family PASS.

Marina says that once she gets her bachelor’s degree she’s going for her PhD — and then she wants to start an organization to encourage other women like her to go into IT.

(And did we mention her two-year old asked the case manager to explain octagons to him? This is a family that is going places.)